The present invention is directed toward an identification tag or label and more particularly toward such a label which is particularly adapted for labeling the ends of rolled drawings.
Most mechanical, engineering and architect's drawings are made on large sheets of paper which are clearly not suited for storage in ordinary letter or legal sized files. While these drawings and blueprints and the like can be folded to fit into standard filing cabinets, this is not typically done since the folds can distort the drawing and make it difficult for the user to take off accurate measurements. Accordingly, the preferred way for storing such drawings is to keep them flat or to roll the same.
There are special purpose filing cabinets for storing drawings in a flat condition. However, this special filing equipment is expensive and takes up a great deal of space. Accordingly, most drawings are rolled and typically are maintained in the rolled form through the use of rubber bands or the like. Thereafter, these rolls are either simply stacked on top of each other on a shelf with their ends exposed or are stored in racks which include holes therein into which the rolled drawings are inserted.
The primary problem with any of the commonly used storage systems for rolled drawings is that it is difficult to identify any of the drawings in the stack. What normally must be done is that the architect or contractor must remove each drawing and partially unroll the same to look at the title block in order to determine whether he has retrieved the correct drawing. Many users have written a short description on the outside of the drawings but this does not totally solve the problem since the drawings must still be removed from the stack in order to read the description written on the outside.
Devices have been proposed in the past for labeling the ends of rolled drawings so that they can be identified without removing the rolls from a rack or stack. U.S. Pat. No. 4,745,696, for example, shows a wire loop which is spring loaded and which can be inserted into the hollow open end of a rolled drawing. A visual marker in the form of a flat disk with a boss on the rear surface thereof is press fit onto the wire loop. A molded plastic device having an elongated cylindrical portion and a flat label portion is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,471,547. This device is also intended to be inserted within the open end of a rolled drawing. A device known as a "Clipper Tag" sold by Saga Division of DADE Inc. of Minneapolis, Minn., has a pair of elongated metal clips where one of the clips fits into the interior of the rolled drawing and the second clip extends exterior thereof so as to prevent the rolled drawing from unrolling. A tag is mounted on the clips and perpendicular thereto at the end of the roll.
While each of the foregoing devices is capable of performing a function of identifying rolled documents from the ends thereof, these devices are relatively expensive because of their complex construction. More simplified devices are, therefore, desirable.
Prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,480,307; 2,001,054 and 3,992,794 also show devices which can be used to identify rolled products from the ends thereof. However, these devices are primarily useful with respect to larger rolled products such as rolled carpeting or cloth bolt type products wherein the center portion of the rolled material is flat rather than round. The devices shown in these patents are not useful for rolled drawings.